Father hacks teen son to death, fearing child is possessed by demon

The old year went out Tuesday with a bang, not a whimper, for a Phoenix family when a seriously deranged father murdered his 13-year-old son with an ax, fearing that the boy was possessed by a demon.

That the man, 51-year-old Gary Sherrill, was in serious need of psychiatric help but never received it is suggested by interviews with neighbors. One of them told reporters with FOX affiliate KSAZ that the windows of the Sherrill “were blacked out with tin foil,” adding, “I never saw the child playing whenever he was let out of the house.” The woman noted that she had actually phoned child protective services at one point, but apparently no effort at intervention was made on the child’s behalf.

In a press release on Tuesday, Phoenix Police Sgt. Steve Martos said that Sherrill confessed to murdering his son, David: “[He] stated he was scared of his son and believed his son was a demon and was going to eat him.”